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Archive for May, 2011

Finally got around to this! We found this antique chair on Craigslist last year for like $35. At the time I wanted it for the bedroom but have actually been using it as my sewing chair. I didn’t even think to take ‘before’ pictures which makes me made. It was a dark dark stain and the upholstery was dark jewel tones. Wasn’t really hideous it just wasn’t my style.

Yesterday I sanded, sanded and sanded and applied two coats of paint. This morning I applied another coat of paint, added more padding and updated the fabric. We also secured some of the joints with wood glue – it was getting loose in spots.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. I wanted the Amy Butler peacock feathers pattern in an upholstery weight, but I was entirely too impatient to wait for an online order. I picked this up at Joann’s and I’m actually loving it right now. Birdies!

Don’t look too closely at the paint job, that is definitely not something I love to do.

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This Emmeline apron by Sew Liberated is my very first pattern project! I made it a few months ago and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I love the pattern, love that it’s reversible and think I’ll probably make more. It also prompted me to try a few other patterns as well.

Because I thought I did so well with the Emmeline pattern (and I loved all of the examples of this on flickr) I made a SchoolHouse Tunic. Will DEFINITELY be making many more of these. I opted for the short version but will be willing to try the longer one. The fabric is a light weight, textured pattern from my local fabric store. Super comfy too.

These two were made using Butterick pattern 5217 . I still haven’t hemmed the black shirt, and to be honest – the whole thing was kind of a nightmare. It was so slippery and impossible to pin. Plus, I couldn’t iron it or it would burn! I’m going to stick to cottons. The linen example wasn’t as bad, but again, I think I’ll stick to cottons. Linen = too much serging of cut lines. I’d also like to make the sleeveless version of these in a knit. Just the bottom part in a knit.. the top in a fun printed cotton. Hmm…

And finally…. the kitchen towel. This is actually my favorite of everything in this post. Kinda wonky and scrappy. I was trying to figure out how to use up some of my scraps and decided on this. I’m also a complete textile addict and kitchen towels are one of my big weaknesses. So I just took a Martha’s flour sack (leftover from my embroidery phase) and some scraps and voila! I forgot how HUGE these are and I think I’ll probably cut the next one in half. Because there will be a next one. Quick, instantly gratifying projects are the best.

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Oh jeeze, finally! After we got moved back in the house it took me a while to get back into these. Tori and Lizzie’s birthdays are next week so that gave me the motivation. I had Tori’s quilt top finished and the majority of Lizzie’s done, but still had quite a bit left with backing, stippling and binding.

These were made from Make Life by Sweetwater for Moda. I used a couple of charm packs and some yardage from the line for the back and binding. I think the white paisley print is my favorite – wish I had used it for backing rather than binding.

Designs were fairly simple and turned out to be around 49″ x 60″ each. I needed them to be roughly the same size but different enough so the girls didn’t think they were too similar. Tori and Liz are at the age (going to be 11 and 12) where they don’t want anything their sister has, but I wanted them both to have this fabric! What to do? I attempted a pinwheel style for Tori and a simple 9 patch cut up and sewn back together (no clue what it’s called) for Liz. I accented them with their favorite colors – that’s why the green and blue. After this experience, I know I will NEVER try to make a pinwheel quilt. Never. No way can I get all my points to match up and it was entirely too frustrating for me.

Tags – finally found a way to label my quilts in a manner that is quick and still looks good. Spoonflower! Just design some generic labels so you can fill in the blanks later, a simple logo or create a bunch of custom labels. When it’s all said and done you can fit several on one fat quarter – so it’s very inexpensive per label. I printed on the heavier canvas but I think for future labels I’ll be using the quilting weight fabric. The reason I didn’t use the lighter weight to start with was because I had some space leftover on something else I was having printed, so I threw a few quilt labels on there.